ZimbabweBy: jared cherico

Map of Zimbabwe in Africa

Map of Zimbabwe

Geography

Zimbabwe is slightly larger than Montana and has a tropical climate with a rainy season from November to March. Poor mining practices have lead toxic waste heavy metal pollution. The black rhinoceros herd have been poached leaving the species population very low. Other environmental issues are deforestation, soil erosion, and air and water pollution. A recurring natural hazard are droughts, floods and severe storms rarely happen. Some natural resources found in Zimbabwe are coal, nickel, gold, lithium, tin, asbestos ore, iron ore, vanadium, and chromium ore. Most of Zimbabwe is covered by a plateau called the Mafungabusa Plateau. Some other geographic features are the Matobo and Chizarira hills on the sides of the plateau. Other features include Victoria Falls and Lake Kariba.

People and Society

Most of Zimbabwe's religion is Protestant which is 76 percent and the rest is 8 percent Roman Catholic, 8 percent Christian, 1 percent other religion including Muslim, and 7 percent have no religion. The most common ethnic group in Zimbabwe is African (Shocker) at 99.4 percent, then other is 0.2 and unspecified is 0.4. The most widely spoken language in Zimbabwe is Shona, then Ndebele, then English is spoken for official business. The capital of Zimbabwe is Harare and the countries population is 14,546,961. The currency exchange rate is 1 US dollar is equal to 0.94 Euro. Zimbabwe's president is Robert Gabriel MUGABE. The countries type of government is a Republic. The average population age in Zimbabwe is 58 years old. Zimbabwean people dress in modern, Western-style clothing and it is very rare when people wear traditional headdresses and wraparound cloth on a daily basis.

This is Zimbabwe's capital Harare and it is a major trade center for Tobacco, Maize, Cotton, and Citrus Fruit. It has an estimated population of 1,606,000. Harare has many things to do including visiting an art gallery, there are many parks, and some gardens to visit.

In the background there is a statue of the president Robert MUGABE and the city it is in is Zimbabwe's second largest city, Bulawayo. Bulawayo houses the country's main museum, the natural history museum, a railway museum, the Bulawayo Art gallery, which is housed in a most attractive turn of the century building, theatres, the Mzilikmzi Art and craft centre, good hotels and one of the finest caravan and camping parks in Zimbabwe. This city holds just over 1 million people.

In the 1830’s, the Ndebele people fleeing Zulu violence and Boer migration in present-day South Africa move north and settle in what becomes known as Matabeleland.

In 1980 on April 18th, Zimbabwe gained independence from the British. Before it was renamed Zimbabwe it was named Southern-Rhodesia in 1979 by Britain. They gained independence by Robert MUGABE winning the majority vote and becoming the Prime Minister of "Southern-Rhodesia" and renamed it Zimbabwe.

In 2002, State of disaster declared as worsening food shortages threaten famine. Also in 2002, 45-day countdown for some 2,900 white farmers to leave their land begins, under terms of a land-acquisition law passed in May.

In 2005, Riot police disrupt a planned demonstration against the government's handling of the economic crisis. Union leaders were taken into custody and later hospitalised, allegedly after being tortured.

Historical Figure

A historical figure in Zimbabwean history is Lobengula. Lobengula lived from 1833 to 1894 and is famous for being the king of Ndebele which is in Zimbabwe. Lobengula granted mineral concession to Rhodes which led to European settlement in and the people of Ndebele tried to lead a rebellion against the Europeans and Lobengula stopped it. Since he gave Europeans access to the minerals the country was named Rhodesia then later named Zimbabwe.

Wildlife

Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Matobo has a park that protects a large population of black and white rhinoceros. The main five animals that live in Zimbabwe are lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo and rhino and some predators are servals, civets, jackals and hyenas.

Corruption Index

Zimbabwe is ranked 154 out of 176 in the corruption index and is 22 out of 100 on the corruption scale. The higher the number for the ranking out of 176 is the worse your country is and the lower the rank out of 100 the worse your country is which would make Zimbabwe an overall not so well running country besides trading agriculture.

Trade

The main trading export in Zimbabwe is Tobacco as shown in the image in the background. Exports of unmanufactured tobacco earned the country over 240 million dollars in revenue in 2009. Other minor crops exported are sugar and cotton.